Undertone

When I first saw the trailer to this movie way back when, I thought it looked great. Then, once the movie released, the reviews from critics were mostly positive, yet the audience scores were brutal. Some of my close horror-loving friends hated this movie.

So when I went into it, my expectations had lowered significantly. And maybe that's why I actually enjoyed this movie quite a bit. Will it go on an annual rewatch list? No. But there were many creepy scenes, and the way the movie was shot just added to the overall dread that the amazing audio brought.

Without giving too much about the plot away, this story follows a podcaster who is caring for her terminally ill mother. Almost every scene takes place in the same house — or really the same room for that matter. Evy is our protagonist, and her podcast co-host Justin spends the entire movie off camera as just a voice we hear on the other side of her headphones as they discuss some true crime and horrific events while listening to audio clips of their case.

"The way they leave the camera on single frames for just a few seconds too long always had me thinking something was going to move in the background."

I think a big reason this movie worked well for me compared to some of the other reviews leaning the other way — I watched it in the dark with my Beats headphones over my ears, which added even more to the creepy audio. That's the move. Treat it like the experience it was designed to be.

This movie is very much a slow burn, but with the way it was shot, the uneasiness is there constantly. The camera lingers on empty frames just a beat too long, always hinting that something out of focus might move in the background.

I give this movie a 7 out of 10, and recommend at least giving it a shot if you dig slow burn horror, true crime podcasts, or horror that leans on atmosphere to scare you more than jump scares or gore.